Sheeley Mountain

The last winter hike of the Alpiners was the Sheeley Mountain snowshoe bushwack. According to the description: Sheeley is an unprepossessing little mountain of about 210 feet but fromt the top, if you look one way you can see Canada Lake and from the other way, see Caroga Lake. About 3 miles, most of it off trail.

Any hike in the Adirondacks this time of year is an adventure. You don't know if you'll get snow, mud or both. Randy and I met the rest of the group at 10:10am at the Caroga Lake coffee shop across from the post office. I was sorry to see a For Sale sign on the shop. A real loss to the community if it doesn't sell well. At any rate, Kathy, Gail, Nancy and Al were there as well as an new person, Allen as well as Randy and I. We got in our cars and spotted some cars at the north end of the trail then loaded everyone into the rest of the cars and went to the south end of the trail.

Unloading, we got started about 11am and hit a snow mobile trail for about 1/2 mile till we got to NYS land. Then put on snow shoes and took a sharp right into the woods. The snow was icy but firm so the walking was pretty easy, except of course for the uphill part. Because we were on the south side of the mountain, the snow was icy and as we got higher, less and less snow till we took off our snow shoes. Spring being what it is, some spots were very muddy and slippery. I did slip once but managed to avoid a messy mud mess.



Finally reached the summit and it was as promised, a view of both lakes. We lunched at the summit an Gail packed in a bottle of "Equinox" wine and some plastic cups to drink it in. A toast to the equinox and spring and a lovely hike. Randy took his usual group picture.

At about 1230 we packed up and back in snow shoes headed down the
north side of the mountain. Steep in parts, we were still able to walk down, no need for sliding on the seat of our pants this time.

We got back to the spotted cars about 1:15. The day started cloudy but turned sunny and windy at the end. Again, I can't think of a better way to spend my Sunday morning.